ByCompiled From Wire Service Dispatches With Analysis From Monitor Correspondents Around The WorldEdited By Laurent BelsieMay 18, 1983

Washington
— US intelligence officials have evidence linking the government of Iran with the bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, CBS News said. Admininistration sources said that a few days before the April 18 bombing US agents intercepted a series of cables from the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Syria. CBS reported that one cable approved payment of $25,000 for a terrorist attack against an unnamed installation in Beirut. Another one directed the Iranian Embassy to facilitate the passage of 12 Iranians through Damascus on their way to Beirut. These same 12 Iranians reappeared in Damascus several hours after the explosion at the embassy, just long enough to have driven back from Beirut, the network said.

The report could not be confirmed through Pentagon sources, and the State Department declined comment. An Iranian official told CBS his government already had denied any connection with the bombing.